Press Room

Indiana Nurse and Dean Honored with National Nursing Leadership Award

At its annual conference in Florida last month, the National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists (NACNS) presented its prestigious Brenda Lyon Leadership Award to Lisa Hopp, PhD, RN, FAAN, dean and professor of nursing at Purdue University Northwest. This Award recognizes extraordinary leadership in service to NACNS. It is named for Brenda Lyon, a founding member and the second president of NACNS.

Founding and current director of the Indiana Center for Evidence Based Nursing Practice, A Joanna Briggs Institute Center of Excellence, Hopp is a longtime member of NACNS. Since 2005, the global collaborating Center has engaged with international leaders in evidence based practice. It focuses on the science and methods of evidence synthesis to produce ideal sources of evidence to inform and advance nursing practice. In addition, it has built curricula and trained hundreds of advanced practice nurses, faculty, library scientists and other disciplines in the methodologies of systematic review. Hopp has been a JBI Certified Systematic Review trainer since 2005. She co-authored a text to help undergraduate, graduate and working clinicians to use evidence in their practice.

Hopps has managed the clinical nurse specialist (CNS) List serv and has served on the NACNS education committee as one of its website editors, and as the editor of a column that ran in the Educator’s Corner in the CNS Journal.

“Dr. Hopp’s leadership and guidance with NACNS’s website has helped make it a powerful tool for networking, communications and advocacy,” said NACNS President Anne E. Hysong, MSN, APRN, CCNS, ACNS-BC. “Clinical nurse specialists are able to share, learn and support each other through the valuable platform that Hopp has helped oversee.”

The awards bestowed at the conference were given to:

The CNS of the Year award was given to Lori Brittingham, MSN, RN, CNS, ACCNS-N of Reading Hospital.

The Susan B. Davidson Award for extraordinary service to NACNS went to Kathy Baker, PhD, RN, ACNS-BC, FAAN, Director, Nursing Research and Scholarship, Texas Christian University Harris School of Nursing.

The Brenda Lyon Leadership Award, which recognizes extraordinary leadership in service to NACNS, was given to Lisa Hopp, PhD, RN, FAAN, Dean and Professor, Purdue University Northwest.

The CNS Educator of the Year Award was bestowed on Susan Dresser, MSN, APRN-CNS, CCRN, director of the Adult-Gerontology CNS Program at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.

The Researcher of the Year Award was given to Susan B. Fowler, PhD, RN, CNRN, FAHA, Nurse Scientist, Center for Nursing Research at Orlando Health.

The CNS Evidence Based Practice (EBP) / Quality Improvement (QI) of the Year Award – given for the first time – to Maureen Seckel, MSN, APRN, ACNS-BC, CCNS, CCRN, FCCM, who serves in the Critical Care CNS role at Christiana Care Health System.

The Preceptor of the Year award was given to Patricia Radovich, PhD, CNS, FCCM.

Affiliate of the Year Award was bestowed on the California Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists.

# # # #

Founded in 1995, The National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists is the only association representing the clinical nurse specialist (CNS). CNSs are advanced practice registered nurses who work in a variety of specialties to ensure high-quality, evidence-based, patient-centered care. As leaders in health care settings, CNSs provide direct patient care and lead initiatives to improve care and clinical outcomes, and reduce costs. NACNS is dedicated to advancing CNS practice and education, removing certification and regulatory barriers, and assuring the public access to quality CNS services.